Kecksburg Space Acorn

wendyvee says:I’d like to give a very warm welcome to James — a road tripper & storyteller extraordinaire who shares his adventures through his Outta The Way blog.

I first became aware of James (and I’m not sure that he even knows this) through his Etsy shop which, among other things, features his “Outta The Way” zines. Remember zines? I used to be a big zine trader in college and loved the idea of an old school zine about road tripping! Later, James and I “met” through Twitter and Facebook.

With this entry, James shares the Kecksburg Space Acorn in southwestern Pennsylvania.The annual Kecksburg UFO Festival has been on my radar for a long time … hopefully you’ll see a RoadsideWonders post about it this September 🙂

James says:You could call it the Roswell of Pennsylvania. The tiny village of Kecksburg had an all too frightening experience with an unidentified flying object on a chilly night in December of 1965. The modest community was even featured on the hit television show “Unsolved Mysteries.” Lucky for us they left a prop for all to remember that fateful night. A replica of the space acorn, which came crashing into town, sets high on a pedestal across from the local fire company.

The local fire team was the first on the scene when the mysterious object came hurtling into the nearby woods. Shortly after so did a few others, including the United States Army as well as high ranking government officials. The Government claims to have removed nothing from the scene, though many claim to have witnessed this strange phenomenon. It was spotted shooting through 6 states, now everyone who visits Kecksburg can get a closer look at this marvelous spectacle.

After checking out the space acorn we headed into the UFO gift shop. This place is an absolute treat and a must see, to spoil it’s charm would be a disappointment. There you can find all sorts of alien and Kecksburg merchandise. We purchased a documentary to try and learn more about what really happened that strange night in this rural community. One thing is for sure the town of Kecksburg hasn’t been the same yet!

I haven’t seen it in real life yet either. I used to be in that part of PA a lot (that’s where most of my Dad’s family were from); but the majority of my generation’s part of the family moved away so I’m not out there very often.